CourseWorks Grades and Gradebook: Best Practices

An organized set-up for your CourseWorks Gradebook and a well-planned grading procedure can help you, your TAs, and your students as the semester unfolds. Use the tips below to structure a grading system that works for you before, during, and at the end of each semester.

Before the Semester Begins

Set-up your CourseWorks Gradebook. The CTL recommends using the Gradebook within CourseWorks to keep track of your grades and communicate with students. The CourseWorks Gradebook is a robust tool which provides you with all the features you need to set up grading schemes, post grades, annotate student work with feedback, and calculate final grades. Keeping your grades within CourseWorks allows you to maintain transparency with students and keep all your grading data in one place. For additional resources and tutorials on CourseWorks assessment features, the CTL maintains a selection of articles and videos to support instructors as well as a self-cased course, Assessment and Grading in Canvas (2.0). 

Establish ownership over grading data in whatever platform you choose. If you prefer to keep grading data in a spreadsheet, make sure you have administrative permissions on all documents as the instructor of record and that they are stored securely. The easiest way to establish ownership is to create the documents yourself and then share with TAs or anyone else who needs access. This will allow you to share with new users who might need to access, and is the best way to protect your students’ sensitive information.

Communicate your grading policies clearly to students. Explain your weighting system (if you use one), policies on late work, and post rubrics and criteria for each graded item. For further discussion of setting policies and managing student expectations around grading, you can visit the CTL’s compilation of Resources for Assessing Student Learning.

Consult with the CTL if you need help. We are here to help! The CTL maintains open consulting hours over zoom and phone during the entire semester, and we are happy to talk you through setting up and using your Gradebook.

During the Semester

Stay up to date! Regularly update grades and review them for accuracy before making them visible to students in CourseWorks. This helps students stay informed about their progress in the course and address any concerns they may have in a timely manner. The Speedgrader in CourseWorks can help you grade student submissions and post grades and feedback quickly.

Provide detailed and timely feedback to help students understand their performance and make improvements on future assessments in the course  Use the Gradebook’s feedback feature to provide constructive feedback on student work. Leave comments, annotations, upload a file, or provide audio feedback.

Maintain communication with your students. Make sure your students know how they can ask questions and voice concerns around grades throughout the semester, reducing end-of-semester confusion. Check-in with students when you notice missing submissions in your Gradebook. Send messages through CourseWorks to remind students about upcoming deadlines.

End of the Semester

Follow this quick checklist:

• Make sure all graded items (assignments, quizzes, discussions) are included in your Gradebook as expected.
• Review your methods for grade calculation and grade distribution.
• Submit your final grades. For help on submitting your final grades go to Student Services Online.

Archive all grades and related documents for future reference. Ensure copies of spreadsheets and graded work are securely stored and accessible for institutional purposes.

Resources

For a comprehensive overview of CourseWorks Gradebook resources, please visit the CourseWorks Gradebook Resources Page which organizes support documents from Instructure, which is the CourseWorks (Canvas) parent organization Canvas.

The CTL has produced a quick video tutorial about the CourseWorks Gradebook and Speedgrader: Tools for Assessment in CourseWorks.

Instructors can always reach out to the CTL for support using CourseWorks. The CTL maintains open consulting hours over zoom and phone during the entire semester, and we are happy to talk you through setting up and using your Gradebook.